There is a place in your heart where you have never been wounded
Meister Ekchart
Transpersonal therapy focuses on the holistic context of the client, acknowledging and incorporating the spiritual and soul dimension of the individual in addition to behavioural and psychological aspects. Self-awareness, self-actualisation and a sense of a higher purpose and exploration of underlying values and personal purpose are key to the transpersonal approach to therapy.
Transpersonal psychotherapy removes the assumed separation of spirit and psyche and challenges the modern disconnect between spirituality and psychology.
Transpersonal psychotherapy does, however, recognise the work of psychological and spiritual growth encompasses different approaches and focuses on different layers of the human experience. Seminal transpersonal psychologist, philosopher and founder of Integral Theory, Ken Wilber, calls on humanity to “clean up, wake up, grow up.” In this brief statement, “clean up” refers to the need to address and resolve one’s own inner demons, complexes, prejudices and neuroses, and “wake up” points to the need to find a spiritual meaning and balance in life. From his perspective, it is quite obvious that both need to be done, but that neither can do the work of the other. As an example, there is a sad history of great spiritual teachers, notably over recent decades those who have come to the West as Hindu and Buddhist gurus, entirely incapable of controlling their own urges to alcoholism and predatory sex offending. Nonetheless, these gurus are still widely considered great spiritual teachers and authors whose works continue to inspire generations of seekers. These were examples of those who had “woken up” but had barely begun the process of psychological “cleaning up.” And equally, there are those who have done years of personal therapy and have resolved many of their psychological issues and yet feel they have no real sense of personal meaning or existential purpose. They have “cleaned up” but have not “woken up.”
Transpersonal psychotherapy is an approach which recognises the need to apply therapeutic methods to address psychological wounding and dysfunctional conditioning whilst doing so in the context of deeper spiritual yearnings.
Transpersonal therapies can be seen as the “next step” of classical psychotherapeutic practice, although its essential aims can be seen in the early psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and even more notably Carl Jung. However, as the field of psychology became both more medicalised with a focus on pathology, the transpersonal dimension of therapy became increasingly marginalised.
Transpersonal psychology is not so much a specific modality in itself, but is rather an approach to therapy that is profoundly holistic in that it recognises and embraces the mind-body-spirit unity, is values-driven focusing on the inherent strengths and wellness of each individual, and draws heavily on the idea of the “transpersonal” – that which transcends the personal ego and reflects on the deeper, mystical and unitive essence of the human experience as a means to drawing the generally neurotic ego back to a haven of strength and clarity.
Many are aware of Abraham Maslow, the “father of humanistic psychology” and his influential Hierarchy of Needs. This model suggests that each individual must address and meet their human needs in an ascending journey of individuation, starting with essential physiological requirements, then safety, then love and belonging, then self-actualisation. He himself said that ideally his humanistic approach would be a “transitional field of psychology” to be subsumed into a larger transpersonal model. The realisation of “unitive experience” is here seen as the pinnacle of both the spiritual and therapeutic journey.
Over recent times, such approaches as Contemplative Psychotherapy and Mindful Self-Compassion have developed transpersonal principles in exciting new approaches to psychological wellness, and the influence of meditation and a secular approach to Buddhism has profoundly influenced such modalities as ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Management, and DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy). Parts Work, such as Resource Therapy, also assumes the classically-Buddhist perspective that the human personality is composed of parts, personas, and various different complexes rather than simply being one monolithic entity, or unchanging “self”.
Given transpersonal therapies elevate the expression of the spiritual dimension, religious practice and resources are also considered valuable adjuncts to therapy if the client feels comfortable working with these. Indeed, many people who access transpersonal psychotherapy find in their religious upbringing empowering resources and wisdom where once they might have only seen confusion and exclusion. A re-imagining of one’s religious conditioning can offer a profound grounding and homecoming for people who feel they have lost their faith and their spiritual source.
Transpersonal therapies commonly include such practices as meditation, art therapy, music therapy, hypnotherapy, dream work, holotropic breathwork and journaling. Transpersonal practices are typically creative and can draw on such esoteric practices as the use of tarot, past life regression, shamanic practice, and spirit guides and contacts depending on the client’s needs.
Altered states, whether through the application of hypnosis or meditative and shamanic work, can also be a significant part of modern transpersonal therapies.
Big Sky Mind brings the transpersonal vista into traditional psychotherapeutic practice, helping provide the ultimate “why?” into the search for psychological wholeness, providing vision, purpose and higher dimensions of meaning into the healing journey. It doesn’t ask “what is wrong with you?”, it asks “who are you and where do you want to go?” and from there applies tailored therapeutic methods to undo the confusion and mental pain to regain that natural place of “brilliant sanity”.
Big Sky Mnd 